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COVID-19 has killed more than 420,000 Americans in one year, and infections have continued to rise despite the introduction of a pair of vaccines at the end of 2020. USA TODAY follows the news. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates. Subscribe to our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates to your inbox, join our facebook group or scroll through our detailed answers to reader questions.
California health officials lifted regional stay-at-home orders statewide on Monday, citing a drop in the number of COVID-19-related hospitalizations and ICU patients.
The stay-at-home order had included most of the state’s counties, including the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley, and Southern California. The change will allow restaurants to resume outdoor dining in many areas, although local authorities may choose to maintain stricter rules. The state is also lifting a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.
The restrictions had fueled an angry outcry from many small business owners. California will now revert to its four-tier, color-coded system of county-by-county restrictions, state health officials have said. The state is also considering extending protections against evictions until the end of June due to the pandemic.
“Together, we changed our business knowing that our short-term sacrifices would lead to longer-term gains,” said Dr. Tomás Aragón, director of the California Department of Public Health and head of public health.
– Amanda Ulrich and Julie Makinen, Palm Springs Desert Sun
In the headlines:
►The first case of the highly contagious variant of the coronavirus originally discovered in Brazil has been detected in the United States, with Minnesota officials said on Monday that a state resident who recently visited Brazil has been confirmed as having contracted this strain.
►World Health Organization officials said on Monday that they did not believe Olympic athletes should be given priority access to COVID-19 vaccines, especially if that means getting ahead of healthcare workers and the elderly population in the world.
►President Joe Biden on Monday reinstated a ban on travel to the United States from South Africa for most non-American citizens, in addition to restrictions on travel from Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland and 26 European countries.
►With the support of eight Arizona mayors, Cactus League baseball is pushing to delay the start of spring training. The MLB has approved a one-month delay until mid-March, but the players’ union is against it.
►Merck has abandoned the race for the COVID-19 vaccine, citing “inferior” immune responses. It’s proof that security systems work, experts say.
📈 Today’s numbers: The United States has more than 25.2 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 420,800 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Global totals: over 99.6 million cases and 2.1 million deaths.
📘 What we read: President Joe Biden seeks to reset the country’s inconsistent coronavirus testing efforts with a $ 50 billion plan and increased federal oversight. Learn more here.
Joe Biden’s new goal: 1.5 million shots per day
President Joe Biden is raising expectations for his administration’s immunization schedule, which initially aimed to deliver 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days in office. On Monday, Biden said a daily average of 1 million doses was still the minimum goal, but that 50% more may be achievable.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to increase as we go along, so we’ll get to 1.5 million,” Biden said.
Biden signaled his growing optimism about the pace of vaccinations after an executive order was signed to boost government purchases from U.S. manufacturers. The initial goal of 100 million doses seemed ambitious when the vaccine rollout began slowly in December, but the United States has exceeded the rate of 1 million doses per day over the past week, prompting the ‘Biden administration to shoot higher. the pandemic continues to rage.
Moderna: the vaccine is as effective as the British variant, less than the South African strain
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine protects against two variants of the coronavirus that emerged from Britain and South Africa, but not as strongly against the second, according to a study by the company.
The biotech company said in a statement on Monday that its vaccine produced an immune response to “all major emerging variants tested” and no significant reduction in neutralizing antibodies against the variant first identified in the UK, which according to CDC, could become the dominant strain in the United States by March.
The immune response to the South African variant showed a six-fold decrease in neutralizing antibodies, which Moderna said were still “above levels that should be protective.”
Nevertheless, the company is developing a booster dose that could fight against the South African variant and emerging futures.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease specialist in the United States, called the South African variant “different and more worrying than that of the United Kingdom”.
– Adrianna Rodriguez
COVID-19 test requirement to fly in the United States goes into effect Tuesday
Starting Tuesday, travelers arriving in the United States from foreign countries will be required to show proof of a recent coronavirus test with a negative result.
The new rule has already had an impact on the travel industry, leading to a wave of cancellations and a drop in bookings at Mexican resorts.
Here are seven things you should know about the test requirement.
– Dawn Gilbert
CDC: NFL study finds transmission without 15 minutes of close contact
A study of NFL players found that transmission of the coronavirus is still possible even if exposure does not exceed 15 minutes total within six feet, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study, published Monday in the agency’s Weekly Mortality and Morbidity Report, followed 20 players from October 15 to November 21 who were identified as high-risk contacts of a COVID-19 patient. The researchers determined through contact tracing that seven of them “had no interactions exceeding 15 cumulative minutes per day within (six feet).”
The findings call into question the CDC’s guidelines on community exposure, which it defines as close contact with someone confirmed or suspected of having COVID-19. According to the agency, close contact is defined as within six feet for a total of 15 minutes or more. The CDC also noted that most cases were from community exposure and not from the field or other work-related environments.
– Adrianna rodriguez
Google will provide vaccination sites and improve online vaccine research
Google said it will open up some facilities to use as vaccination sites and strengthen search results to provide better information on where to find a COVID-19 vaccine.
In a blog post Monday, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet, said the company will partner with a medical vendor and public health authorities to open sites in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Kirkland, Washington, near Seattle. The company plans to expand the initiative nationwide.
“Providing vaccines to billions of people will not be easy, but it is one of the most important problems that we will solve in our lives,” Pichai said in her article. “Google will continue to assist in any way it can.”
Japan fights for ‘herd immunity’ as Tokyo Olympics approach
Japan’s vaccination effort fails and could jeopardize the Tokyo Olympics, at least one expert warns.
Japan is unlikely to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19 with massive inoculations until months after the Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled to begin on July 23, Rasmus Bech Hansen, the founder of the company, told Reuters British Airfinity Research Center.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has pledged to have enough vaccines for the population by the middle of 2021. Hansen, however, said Japan will not achieve a 75% vaccination rate, a benchmark for collective immunity, before October.
“Japan seem to be quite late in the game,” said Hansen. “They depend on importing many (vaccines) from the United States and at the moment it doesn’t seem very likely that they will receive very large quantities.”
In rural Pennsylvania, COVID-19 makes a tragic mark
The pandemic has not bypassed rural America and it will not go away.
In the town of Beaver, Pennsylvania, 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, vaccines are almost impossible to obtain. Heritage Valley Beaver nurses had to open a second COVID-19 unit to treat all critically ill patients. The community health system recently treated 115 patients simultaneously with COVID-19.
“The struggle to just breathe. It feels like a little thing, you keep breathing, it’s not a little thing,” said Rebecca Register, 40, of Beaver, a seven-year-old veteran nurse who works on the COVID-19 unit. “Watching someone struggle with this, and they take as much oxygen as I can give them at any time and it breaks your heart.” Learn more here.
– Daveen Rae Kurutz, Beaver County Times
2 in 5 Americans live in hospital intensive care units with strains of COVID-19
Struggling to handle record numbers of COVID-19 patients, hundreds of intensive care units across the country are running out of space and supplies and are scrambling to hire temporary mobile nurses at a breakneck pace. Many facilities are grouped to the south and west.
An Associated Press analysis of federal hospital data shows that since November, the share of US hospitals near breaking point has doubled. More than 40% of Americans now live in areas with limited critical care space, and only 15% of beds are still available.
Intensive care units are the last line of defense for the sickest patients, patients on the verge of suffocation or facing organ failure. Nurses who work in the most stressed ICUs, changing IV bags and monitoring patients on breathing machines, are exhausted.
Contribute: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID Update: Biden Seeks 1.5 Million Daily Vaccines; Brazilian variant
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